Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-82386 (PTL 1) describes a seat for vehicles which includes a walk-in mechanism and a mechanism for recovery from walk-in operation, and a walk-in cancel mechanism and a walk-in cancel release mechanism. Next, each of the mechanisms will be described.
(1) The walk-in mechanism is a mechanism which restrains a seat back from rotating to a fully tilted-down position of the seat back and switches a slide lock mechanism in a locked state to an unlocked state when, by operating a walk-in operation means to rotate the seat back forward, the seat back is rotated to a middle tilted position between an upright position in which the seat back is roughly perpendicular to a base member and the fully tilted-down position in which the seat back tilts down and covers an upper surface of the base member.
As main components of the walk-in mechanism, a pressing projection located at the lower end of a seat back frame and a walk-in operation lever are provided. As the seat back is rotated forward by operating the walk-in operation means, the pressing projection presses the walk-in operation lever and rotates it to a walk-in operation position. At this time, the pressing projection is restrained from rotating by a non-pressing projection and the seat back stops rotating at the middle tilted position. On the other hand, as the walk-in operation lever is rotated to the walk-in operation position, a lock claw for fixing an upper rail onto a lower rail is rotated to an unlocked position. Then, the upper rail becomes slidable with respect to the lower rail (see Paragraph 0019).
(2) The mechanism for recovery from walk-in operation is a mechanism which, by returning the seat back from the middle tilted position to the upright position, switches the slide lock mechanism from the unlocked state to the locked state and restrains the upper rail from sliding with respect to the lower rail.
This mechanism releases the pressing force of the pressing projection against the walk-in operation lever and switches the lock claw from the unlocked state to the locked state. At this time, the walk-in operation lever is rotated and reset to a walk-in non-operation position (see Paragraph 0019).
(3) The walk-in cancel mechanism is a mechanism which functions by rotating a seat cushion in a position which allows sitting, to the escape position and allows the seat back to rotate to the fully tilted-down position with the seat cushion in the escape position, while setting the walk-in mechanism to an invalid state in which the walk-in mechanism is inoperable.
The walk-in cancel mechanism is a mechanism which enables the seat back to rotate to the fully tilted-down position by operating the cancel operation lever when the walk-in operation means is operated with the seat cushion rotated to the escape position, and also keeps the locked state (sliding restrained) of the upper rail with respect to the lower rail. The walk-in cancel mechanism sets the walk-in operation lever to a walk-in non-operation position (position where no interference with the pressing projection occurs) by rotating the seat cushion to the escape position and rotating the seat back to the fully tilted-down position. This keeps the locked state (sliding restrained) of the upper rail with respect to the lower rail. In other words, the walk-in cancel mechanism cancels walk-in operation.
(4) The walk-in cancel release mechanism is a mechanism which functions by rotating the seat back in the fully tilted-down position to the upright position and then returning the seat cushion to the position which allows sitting, and resets the walk-in mechanism invalidated by the walk-in cancel mechanism, to a valid state in which the walk-in cancel mechanism is operable.
The above walk-in cancel mechanism is provided in relation to a retracted posture of the vehicle seat in which the seat cushion is rotated to the escape position and also the seat back is rotated to the fully tilted-down position.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-214131 (PTL 2) describes a flip-up mechanism which sets a vehicle seat to a retracted posture. This flip-up mechanism turns a link forward by the biasing force of a spiral spring to flip up the seat cushion (see Paragraph 0089).